Two new publications by by Alberto Alonso-Fradejas, addressing critical questions at the intersection of political ecology, agrarian change, and labour:

– Alonso-Fradejas, A. (2026). The third standpoint: the politics of accommodating to green agrarian extractivism. Third World Quarterly, 1–23.

– Tejada-Guzmán, P., & Alonso-Fradejas, A. (2026). Los pinares de Babel: sociología política de la incorporación de trabajadores migrantes a la bioeconomía resinera. Revista Española de Sociología, 35(1), 1–23.

Both publications offer timely insights into contemporary forms of green extractivism, bioeconomy transitions, and the politics of labour and accommodation.

Abstract The Third Standpoint
Extractivism is rife with multiple, dynamic politics. Beyond supporters and challengers, many – arguably most – act to accommodate to the extractivist order as best they can. Grounded in Guatemala’s green agrarian extractivism in the oil palm complex, I theorise this third standpoint and examine who accommodates, why and how. Using a ‘multi-dynamic politics framework’, I map actors, agendas, frames and repertoires. I distinguish accommodators by legal character (lawful/criminal) and by accommodative will (amenable/reluctant) across co-constituted class, gender and racialised–ethnic positions. Agendas diverge from a shared sense of inevitability: a dog-eat-dog criminal accommodation, to a lawful pursuit of inclusive, ethical, sustainable development. Lawful accommodators deploy contention strategies that broker fixes, fixes – raising wages and improving labour conditions, expanding land leases and contract farming and adopting climate-smart practices – to soften harms to working people and the environment. Yet these gains normalise green prosocial branding, keep commodity chains certifiable, and reproduce the green agro-extractivist order and its racialised class hegemony, even as criminal accommodation further entangles agro-extractive frontiers with violent, illicit economies. Naming and specifying accommodation clarifies how harm-reducing reforms can also stabilise extractivism. The analysis speaks beyond Guatemala to resource frontiers where pragmatic, accommodative reform both tempers and entrenches extractivism.


Abstract Los pinares de Babel
El artículo explora el nexo entre transición demográfica y transición verde en áreas rurales marginadas y envejecidas, analizando la sociología política de la incorporación de trabajadores migrantes a la bioeconomía resinera en Soria y Segovia. Indaga términos de inclusión, apoyos, acomodaciones y oposiciones, y sus efectos distributivos e identitarios. Metodológicamente combina 64 entrevistas, observación participante (campañas 2022, 2023 y 2025) y revisión documental. Los resultados distinguen dos modelos de incorporación de resineros migrantes: (1) uno institucional y ‘partidario’, liderado por propietarios y gestores de montes públicos —predominante en Soria—, que concibe la resinación como palanca de revitalización rural; y (2) otro modelo ‘acomodador’, liderado por actores públicos y privados orientados a maximizar rentas y beneficios —más común en Segovia—, con mayor selectividad en acceso a empleo, pinos y vivienda. Estos modelos estructuran los marcos y repertorios de contienda partidarios, acomodadores y opositores en tres ejes: trabajo-pinos-vivienda, gobernanza y reconocimiento y sociabilidades cotidianas. La incorporación exitosa de resineros migrantes requiere arreglos institucionales —sobre todo locales— e interacción entre actores partidarios, acomodadores y opositores; los términos de inclusión son desiguales dentro y entre pueblos resineros y cambiantes. En este campo de fuerzas, disputas identitarias y distributivas se entrelazan, y cooperación y conflicto coexisten, atravesados por clase, generación, país de origen y ciudadanía. Los ‘pinares de Babel’ de Soria y Segovia evidencian que la renovada bioeconomía resinera puede articular ambas transiciones en áreas rurales marginadas y envejecidas, aunque de modo contingente: depende de mediación pública comprometida, arreglos concertados de aprovisionamiento de resina y gobernanza de pinares, y redes inclusivas que reconozcan la diversidad sin convertirla en línea de fractura.

A new study by Dawn Cheong, Bettina Bock & Dirk Roep examines how conservation agriculture affects gendered labour dynamics in Nepal’s Terai region.

While conservation agriculture is often promoted for its sustainability benefits, this research applies a feminist lens and the concept of social reproduction to explore its broader impacts. Using surveys, focus groups, and interviews, the study shows that conservation agriculture increases farmers’ workloads and reorganises agricultural labour at the individual level. However, it does not substantially restructure gendered roles in either productive or reproductive work.

Women experience greater empowerment and recognition as contributors to agriculture, yet their reproductive labour remains largely unchanged, creating a transitional space where traditional and new subjectivities of women coexist and negotiate. This highlights how agricultural innovations, if not carefully evaluated, can increase women’s labour burdens and deepen the feminisation of social reproduction crises.

The research underscores the importance of integrating gender perspectives in evaluating agricultural innovations to ensure truly sustainable and equitable development.

Access the publication here.

Dawn D. Cheong is a PhD in Rural Sociology from Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands. She has about 15 years of experience in agriculture and rural development and climate adaptation, working as a planner, practitioner, and researcher with national and international organisations. Her research focuses on gender, labour, and processes of agricultural and rural innovation, with particular interest in how social dynamics shape technology adoption and rural change.

Bettina Bock is Professor of Inclusive Rural Development at the Rural Sociology Chairgroup at Wageningen University and a Professor of Population Decline and Quality of Life at the University of Groningen. Her research areas include inclusive rural development and social innovation, migration, sustainable agriculture and gender relations.

Dirk Roep is a former Assistant Professor and Research Coordinator at the Rural Sociology Chairgroup of Wageningen University and a Project Associate Professor at Kyoto University. He has expertise in place-based sustainable agricultural and rural development, sustainable modes of food provisioning, social learning and innovation, transition studies and rural transformation processes.